| WRIAWW | Yes, This is the Very Guiyi City | 76
Whether something had happened or not remained unknown, the movie had to go on.
Even if the survivors noticed something amiss, given their current identities as movie critics, it wasn't appropriate for them to leave. Moreover, the movie theater had a strict rule prohibiting audience members from exiting mid-screening, even for bathroom breaks.
Reluctantly, everyone had no choice but to stay seated and continue watching the second half.
That said, they weren’t entirely without clues. During the intermission, a few bold survivors made excuses to slip out in small groups to use the restroom. Upon returning, they secretly posted on the forum, informing the others that the women’s restroom next door had been cordoned off with police tape.
There were also people in police uniforms guarding the door and talking on walkie-talkies, clearly, something serious had occurred.
[See? I told you something must’ve happened.]
[Horror dungeon + horror movie—double the terror. It was bound to happen sooner or later.]
[Earlier, the director and lead actors also left the movie theater. Just wait, we’ll find out what kind of mess they’ve stirred up once the movie ends.]
Perhaps because there were many of them, and with two S-level survivors present, everyone remained remarkably calm.
Soon, amid the flurry of forum posts, the lights dimmed once more, and the second half of the movie began.
Before the movie resumed, Joshua glanced at the forum. When he spotted the highly popular gossip post on the front page, the corners of his lips curled into a deeper smile.
Onscreen, the group finally began to realize something was wrong.
No matter how bizarre things got, it was impossible for five or six people to have the exact same dream of the same female weird singing the same eerie opera tune.
What's even more terrifying is the cheating couple had actually glimpsed a flash of red fabric.
“What the hell? D-did someone die here? Is this place haunted?!”
“What? Don’t be ridiculous!” the female lead scoffed. “We’re educated university students in the modern era. Are we really falling for superstitious nonsense?”
“Exactly!”
Defiant, they packed up their camping gear.
Just then, the supporting actress noticed a thin red string coiled around her wrist. Instantly recalling her nightmare, she let out a piercing scream.
Startled by her outburst, the others turned to her, but they soon had no time to blame her. Every one of them discovered an identical, faint red string on their own wrists.
The two involved in the affair had it worst, their strings were a vivid, blood-like crimson.
“What the hell is this?!”
Exchanging panicked glances, they all knew they hadn’t tied anything like this themselves. Worse yet, some remembered the weird from their nightmares had been draped in similar red strings.
“Cut the crap with this prank bullshit!” The little follower with the least sense of presence in the team was fierce on the outside but weak on the inside.
He was afraid that his affair with the female supporting role would be discovered, because only the two of them had red strings on their hands that were abnormal, so he immediately climbed into the car and took out a small knife to cut the red string.
"Wait—" The female supporting character suddenly recalled the weird's singing from last night.
But the little follower was too quick and with a swift motion, the red string was severed in an instant.
After three seconds of silence, he burst into laughter. "See? I told you nothing would happen."
Yet just after laughing, his vision suddenly darkened, and he collapsed to the ground with a blood-curdling scream.
"My heart... Agh, my heart!"
Panic spread through the group. Despite their flaws, none of them would joke about life and death. So they quickly carried him into the village, hoping to find a doctor nearby.
But to their shock, the moment the villagers saw the red strings on their wrists, their expressions turned hostile. Not only did they deny them help, but they also seized and bound them together with rough hemp ropes.
"What are you doing?!"
The female lead shouted furiously, "We’ll call the police! They’ll arrest you all!"
Annoyed by her noise, a villager stuffed a stinky rag into her mouth.
By now, the little follower was barely breathing, lying stiffly on the ground.
"Village chief, could it be...?"
The chief’s face darkened. Without a word, he grabbed a hatchet at his feet and, before anyone could react, plunged it into the little follower's chest.
Thud—
The sickening sound of flesh being torn made the bound group freeze, their pupils shrinking to pinpoints. They watched in horror as the blade carved downward, as the sound of ribs snapped audibly, before thick blood splattered across the chief’s deeply lined face.
Yet he didn’t even blink.
The group stopped struggling, their eyes filled with terror.
However, what happened next sent an even greater chill down their spines.
The hatchet kept hacking straight into the heart, twisted sharply, and was yanked out in one brutal motion, as if butchering an animal.
The wealthy heir had already wet himself in fear.
"M-my father is the CEO of Jiangsheng Group! How much money do you want? I’ll pay anything!"
No one paid attention to him. Because then came the gruesome sight.
The bloody heart was densely entangled with crimson strings. Some strands had dug so deep into the muscle that they left web-like gashes across its pulsating surface. One particularly deep cut nearly split the organ in half, this was clearly the cause of the little follower’s sudden death.
The red strings writhed unnaturally in the pool of blood, tightening, like it were alive.
The other ends of the string stretched toward the direction of the opera stage, glistening wetly under the moonlight.
At the sight of the strings, the villagers erupted in fury and dread. "I knew these outsiders went to the stage! They’ve angered her. She was restless when she died, and now look what’s happened! What do we do?!"
As they argued, a mournful opera melody suddenly drifted from the stage.
"On the seventh day of the seventh month, in the Changsheng Palace, we whispered vows under the stars...I was waiting for you in the play. You broke the red string and now your life is over."
From the villagers’ frantic exchanges, the group finally pieced together what had happened in the past.
Decades ago, a woman who loved to sing opera came to the village. She specialized in playing the matchmaker who helped Zhang Sheng and Cui Yingying get married in "The Story of the White Chamber". She often set up stages to sing operas in several surrounding villages.
In addition, she often helped people find their love, and occasionally worked as a matchmaker. A country scholar from the next village admired her and offered a betrothal gift to marry her. After she got married, Hong Niang stopped singing opera.
Unfortunately, the happiness was short-lived. Her husband proved to be unfaithful and often absent from home after marriage. Enraged, Hong Niang moved back to her home village.
However, in those days, a married woman returning to her parents' home was frowned upon, and the villagers couldn't resist gossiping. One day, the village chief's son harbored ill intentions and broke into her home at night and ruined her innocence.
Overwhelmed with grief and fury, Hong Niang hanged herself on the opera stage the next day.
From then on, strange occurrences plagued the village.
First, the scholar from the neighboring village died a gruesome death at home, his face twisted in terror, his body entangled with red strings. Then, the village chief's son met his end with writhing red strings bursting from his chest, as he screamed "Stay away from me!" before he died.
Moreover, many villagers who had visited the opera stage found mysterious red strings appearing on their hands and without exception, all of them perished.
Over time, everyone came to believe that Hong Niang had become a vengeful weird haunting the opera stage. Her singing could still be heard late at night, and no one dared approach.
Yet, all of this was disrupted by these outsiders.
The villagers decided to stop the curse from spreading and bring these people back to the opera stage to appease Hong Niang.
Unexpectedly, they encountered a "weird wall". They thought they hadn't entered the stage, but in fact, they were actually circling endlessly within it.
At this point, the movie finally reached its most terrifying segment.
The quick-witted female lead secretly cut the ropes, knocked out the villagers, and tried to rescue her companions. But then, Hong Niang appeared in her red opera robes, unleashing a massacre.
"She's lost all reason and became a vengeful weird who only knows killing," muttered a medium-type survivor, clearly familiar with such scenes.
Many wronged souls, upon first turning into weirds, initially seek revenge only on those who wronged them. But over time, craving blood, they gradually expand their hunting grounds, eventually attacking indiscriminately.
The slaughter continued until the movie's end, with both villagers and the group wiped out. Only the female lead staggered away from the village. She started her car and drove off, returning to the city.
While escaping this nightmare, she passed through over a dozen small towns before finally seeing the city's neon lights. Exhausted, she rested her head on the steering wheel and dozed off.
But in the blink of an eye, she found herself back on that opera stage.
It turned out everything before had been an illusion crafted by Hong Niang. In the final scene, the female lead collapsed in despair as red strings severed her head.
After her death, Hong Niang's hanging corpse swayed slowly in the air, back and forth, until the camera zoomed in, freezing on her terrifying face.
"Now it's your turn."
Her crimson lips parted as she addressed the audience beyond the screen. And with that, the movie ended.
"Bravo!"
"Excellent!"
Amidst thunderous applause, the movie theater lights brightened, and everyone rose to their feet clapping.
Although the survivors thought it was a terrible movie, they joined in the applause.
At some unknown point, the lead actor and actress who had left earlier returned to the movie theater, though this time their expressions were far from pleasant. The actress in particular looked utterly terrified, her appearance bearing a resemblance to her final moments in the movie.
Only the director remained in high spirits, as he cheerfully picked up the microphone to speak.
"Well, everyone must be wondering why we disappeared before the second half of the movie began. Truth be told, it's nothing major, it's just that someone died. Yes, the actress who played the matchmaker in our film never showed up for the premiere, which I'm sure raised some questions. We only just received word from the police that this supporting actress hanged herself in the movie theater restroom. Ah, what can I say? Sometimes it's not good for actors to be too immersed in their roles."
The director couldn't have been happier.
He could already imagine the massive wave of attention and controversy this shocking news would generate.
Only Zong Le was speechless
Yes, this is the very Guiyi City.
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